
go over with a bang
Meaning: To be extremely successful.
Example: “The magician's final trick went over with a bang.”
Origin: "With a bang," for anything sudden, emphatic, or impossible to miss, has been in print since the 1500s, drawing on "bang" as one of English's oldest onomatopoeic words for a loud, explosive sound — in the same family as "boom" or "crash," words built to imitate the noise they describe. "Go over with a bang," describing something that succeeds spectacularly and is received with real enthusiasm, applies that same idea of a loud, unmistakable impact to popular reception rather than literal sound. Various colorful stories involving fireworks displays or battlefield explosions are sometimes offered as the phrase's specific inspiration, but none of them is documented with any real evidence — "bang" had already meant an emphatic, attention-grabbing impact for centuries before this particular idiom needed any such story to explain it.
More English idioms
- go to the dogs To fall into disrepair; to deteriorate.
- go with the flow To take a relaxed attitude towards life.
- golden age A time when something is at its best.
- good Samaritan A person who helps someone in trouble without thought of personal gain.
- grim reaper Death.
- hair's breadth A very narrow amount.
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